There are certain things you’d expect to find at a convention that celebrates tattoos and piercings: needles, pictures of skeletons, an abundance of Ed Hardy-inspired T-shirts, more needles.

And those things are definitely a part of this weekend’s Body Art Expo, a three-day event that attracted about 3,000 enthusiasts to downtown’s Golden Hall.

But Saturday, as the buzz and whir of needles played like music, the convention also inspired unlikely conversations about psychology, relationships and art.

“The key to a good tattoo is to find an artist you love and have them draw out your idea,” said Terry Ribera of Avalon Tattoo 2 in Normal Heights. “It’s better than just coming in with a picture because the artist will be more invested and it will be designed to function as true body art.”

Here are more tips and stories from the Body Art Expo:

Baby’s first tattoo: Even though Richard Ledferd just turned 18, he’ll always be Laura Delgadillo’s baby boy. So Delgadillo of Paradise Hills brought her son to the convention so she could be with him as he finally got his first tattoo.

“I think it’s nice of him to have waited until he was 18,” Delgadillo said as Ledferd went under the needle. “He could have gone behind my back, but he didn’t, so I’m here to be supportive.”

After getting the cartilage of his ear pierced earlier in the day, Ledferd moved on to Leo “Catman” Villaseñor’s booth. The Long Beach artist went to work on an outline of California, complete with a Padres friar, on Ledferd’s side and back.

The Adrian Gonzalez fan endured the pain by hugging a roll of paper towels.

“He’s doing really well for his first tattoo,” said Villaseñor. “He has a good mom. I always tell parents that it’s important to support their kids because they’re going to get a tattoo anyway.”

A family affair: Over at Shaun Kama’s booth, it was a mother of two young boys who sat under the needle.

Tracy Jones drove from Valencia with her husband Chris Jones and her sons, Chase and Trent Jones, to be inked by Kama, a family friend.

“Shaun comes over a lot and talks about tattoos,” said Chase, 8, who created an illustration of his last name on a piece of paper. “But this is the first time we see our mom get a tattoo.”

Chris Jones, who has a sleeve of evil characters on one arm and is in the process of getting superheroes put on his other arm, said he and his wife love Kama’s work because it captures the duality of their personalities.

“There’s one half of me that’s a father and a good guy,” he said. “And then there’s the other half that, you know, you just have to suppress.”

As he checked to see how Tracy Jones was holding up, five-year-old Trent grabbed a pen and drew a peace sign on one of his hands and a spider on the other.

Horses and roses: The expo also attracted tattoo fans such as Nichole Bohlender, who was getting a horse and roses inked on her calf.

“I just like horses and roses,” she said. “And I like that I can put art on my body, it’s a way of showing my personality.”